Some moments take your breath away; then they stay with you for a lifetime. Sunday, the 26th of February 2012, was one such day. It was Judgement Day for Indian hockey, which had spent the last four years waiting to right its wrongs. Who will step up? Who will become the nation's blue-eyed boy? Who will get India back into Olympics? All eyes were on Sandeep Singh and stayed fixed on him for the length of those 70 minutes, when he took life out of France with five lethal strikes.
He wanted to leave his imprint on these qualifiers right from the day India started preparing. “I want to hit at least 12 goals,” he said in no uncertain terms during one of our conversations. And with his fifth goal on Sunday, he finished with 16 in the tournament – 15 from penalty corners and one off a penalty stroke.
How befitting it was for Sandeep to receive his highest-goal-scorer trophy from the legend Balbir Singh Sr., whose record-setting five goals in the 1952 Olympics won India the gold. Sandeep touched the Indian hockey icon's feet before accepting the trophy. "God bless you, score many more," Balbir must have said to the would-be Olympian.
The Deputy Superintendent of Police from Haryana made his international debut in January 2004 in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Thereafter, Sandeep made rapid strides, largely due to lethal drag-flicks, which at one point in time had reached as fast as 145 kmph.
In August 2006, the Arjuna Award winner met with an unfortunate accident, getting hit by a gunshot during a train journey when he was travelling to join the national team before leaving for the World Cup in Germany.
That, however, didn't put Sandeep off from his ambition of representing India, especially at the Olympics. But another injury ruled him out of India's squad for the ignominious 2008 Olympic qualifiers. Who knows had Sandeep been fit, he might have saved India's proud Olympic history from getting blemished then. The fighter made a successful return and was awarded the India captaincy in 2009 when he led the team to Sultan Azlan Shah Cup victory after a gap of 13 years. He was also that tournament's leading scorer.
Talking about the Olympics, India's absence from the Beijing Games is now a thing of the past. That ghost is now well and truly buried. The next destination now is London and the boys have booked their tickets to the Queen's land having hammered France 8-1.
"We have turned that black day of 2008 into white today," Sandeep said with a twinkle in his eye after beating France. "[Michael] Nobbs has made us play attacking hockey, which is working well. He played me in different positions and the results have shown," the Haryana lad said.
But like all super stars, Sandeep too hasn't been spared by controversies as he has been pulled up for 'indiscipline' on a few occasions in the past. The latest of those sorry incidents happened during the training camp in Bangalore in August 2011. Apparently, Sandeep and midfielder Sardar Singh left the camp to attend some function without informing the team management. Getting miffed with the repeated disciplinary complaints against the duo, Hockey India slapped a two-year ban on both, which was later revoked after Sandeep and Sardar tendered an apology.
But having taken India back into the Olympics, Sandeep would now not want any such distractions and instead will have his sights set on ending India's 32-year-long wait for an Olympic medal in hockey.
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